469: A Tale of 2 Paths: DSO or Private Practice - Dr. Barrett Straub - a podcast by ACT Dental

A Tale of 2 Paths: DSO or Private Practice

Episode #469 with Dr. Barrett Straub

There's a better path to success than churn-and-burn dentistry. And to help you choose the best path for your career, Kirk Behrendt brings back ACT’s CEO, Dr. Barrett Straub, to explain the two paths you can take: DSO or private practice. They highlight the advantages, disadvantages, and everything else to consider when making your decision. For a roadmap to the dental practice you envision, listen to Episode 469 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Understand the benefits and drawbacks of each path.

Choose the right dental career path for you.

Get a practice coach for guidance.

Have confidence. You can do it!

You control your destiny.

Quotes:

“One of the ingrained, great parts about this profession is we get to control our destiny. We get to choose how we want to practice, where we want to practice. And if you are in one segment of the industry, you can change it. Dentistry is wonderful for that aspect that we truly do control our own path.” (4:32—4:52)

“More and more dental graduates now are going into some sort of associateship, whether it’s with a DSO or another private practice. There are less and less that are as motivated getting a private practice, own their own practice, right away. I think that's a mistake — selfishly. I own my own practice. I think it’s the best. And there are lots of different reasons for that.” (7:16—7:39)

“Why would a dental graduate want to be an associate right away? There are some obvious ones. You have a lot of debt. You want to increase your clinical skills. You want to learn from more experienced dentists. You want to just get into the game a little bit. And that's totally valid.”  (7:41—8:00)

“Think ahead 10 years and literally envision what your life looks like, what your practice looks like, what kind of dentistry you want to be doing. And if that is private practice, then make decisions that move you closer to that reality. And maybe your vision of that is to be an employee dentist with a corporate [dental practice]. Great. Make decisions that move you closer to that.” (10:13—10:39)

“If you're a graduating dental student and you're like, ‘I want to be like a Barrett Straub. I want to own my practice. I want to have that work-life balance. I want that,’ then I'm going to encourage you to, if possible, find your associateship. If you want to be an associate — totally agree. That's valid. Do it in private practice. Work for a private practicing dentist that's going to show you that life, that's going to sit down and show you the profit and loss statement, the cashflow statement, the balance sheet, and is going to teach you some of the business aspects, that's going to show you what it means to run a private care practice, versus a lot of graduates who go into corporate dentistry, go into DSO knowing that they're going to transition to private practice. And that's great. But there's a lost opportunity, I think, because it’s a different model.” (11:42—12:35)

“If your goal is over here in the private practice side, find an opportunity in private practice. It doesn't mean you have to buy that practice. It doesn't mean you can't, after your two-year agreement, find a different one or go buy your own practice. But you're going to learn so much more by knowing your vision and then making decisions that get you closer to that, versus just telling yourself this story, ‘All my classmates are going to work for X, Y, Z dental. I probably need to do it. It’s easy, and they're offering a sign-in bonus.’ Well, you don't have to do that.” (12:36—13:03)

“There will always be a huge need for great private practice.” (17:49—17:54)

“Have some confidence. You absolutely can do it.” (19:23—19:25)

“A private practice dentist that owns

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